1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of ball retrieval apparatus and more particularly to the field of apparatus used to retrieve a tennis ball which has come to rest on the ground. Most commonly, when a tennis player is practicing shots by himself or when two players are playing a game, numerous tennis balls are used and come to rest on the ground after a point is played during the game, either within or outside the court. The present invention relates to the field of apparatus used to pick-up a tennis ball in a manner by which the player does not have to frequently bend down to retrieve the ball, thereby substantially reducing the wear and tear on the tennis player's back and significantly reducing fatigue.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, ball retrieving devices are known in the prior art. There are numerous devices used for retrieving golf balls and tennis balls which involve an elongated object having an open bottom to be fit over the ball and a handle and trigger mechanism, sometimes including a spring mechanism, by which the ball is scooped up into the elongated object and subsequently placed in a basket or other ball retaining receptacle.
The concept of placing the retrieving means on the butt end of the handle of a tennis racket has been invented and two types of embodiments which utilize this principle are disclosed in the following United States patents:
1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,881 issued to Norton on Sept. 19, 1978 for "Ball Retriever" ("Norton Patent").
2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,327 issued to Schubert on July 1, 1980 for "Racket-Mounted Tennis Ball Retriever" ("Schubert Patent").
The Norton Patent discloses a recess formed into the butt end of the handle of the tennis racket with the recess containing a clip member 32. As illustrated in FIG. 3 of the patent, the clip member is designed to spread out and grasp the fuzzy surface of the tennis ball. The ends 34 of clip member 32 have, a plurality of hook means which may be of a VELCRO.RTM. type, which can grasp the surface of the tennis ball. While in theory the device should work well, in practice the device is not satisfactorily functional. The spreading clip 32 can only grasp a small portion of the surface of the tennis ball and in fact is prevented from grasping very much of the tennis ball by the arms 20 of the butt end of the handle of the tennis racket. Therefore, in practice the apparatus as illustrated in the Norton Patent does not work well.
The Schubert Patent also employs a member having hook like grasping means formed into a recess in the butt end of the tennis racket. While in theory this should work, in practice it does not work because the amount of grasping member formed in the recess of the butt end of the handle of the tennis racket is not sufficient to adequately grasp the ball. As with the Norton Patent, there is only one place where the apparatus provides for a means to attempt to grasp the tennis ball and that is at the butt end of the handle of the tennis racket. In Column 1, lines 17 through 25, the patent discloses a prior art device comprising an adhesive strip containing a multiplicity of hooks which are adhered to the rounded frame at the head of the racket. A flaw in this device is that the tennis ball must be secured under-foot to keep it from scooting away before the adhesive strip has a chance to grasp the ball. In addition, it appears that the strip which follows the contour of the head of the tennis racket has a curve diametrically opposite to the curve on the tennis ball, meaning that only one small area of the strip can come in contact with the tennis ball, making it very unlikely that the ball can be grasped securely enough to be picked up.
Therefore, there is a significant need for an improvement on the devices disclosed and discussed in the Norton and Schubert Patents by which the user is afford more than one location for grasping the tennis ball and the means to grasp the tennis ball more properly conforms to the arc of the tennis ball and provides more gripping surface area to assure that the ball can be retrieved.